Strip away the impression, and the harm is gone. What is 'the impression'? A notion, or a thought, that you have about something. – Marcus Aurelius
Reflection
Every developer has that one clever moment they're proud of.
That one-line regex that felt like magic until it silently corrupted data in prod.
The nested ternary that passed review, then failed when it mattered.
The abstraction that trimmed ten lines but cost someone hours to decode.
Clever draws attention. Clear earns trust.
Clarity isn't the absence of creativity. It's the presence of restraint.
It calls things what they are, not what makes us feel clever.
It writes so others don't need to guess what we meant. They don't decode. They understand.
Every abstraction carries a cost. Every clever fix hides a risk.
The wise dev feels the itch to impress and walks right past it.
Stoic developers don't chase applause. They build so others won't suffer.
The next developer.
The team picking up the pieces.
Build the system right, and the incident never comes. \
The best code doesn't stand out.
It slides into place.
Logic flows. Meaning stays clear.
No tricks. No puzzles.
Just intent, clear and unshaken.
Today's Insight
Choosing clarity over cleverness might not get noticed.
But it will be felt where it counts.
Action Steps
- Disarm the Clever - Find one line where you got too fancy. Rewrite it for someone running on caffeine and twenty minutes of sleep.
- Replace with Reason - Take one abstraction and turn it into a function that says precisely what it does. No extras.
- Write to Be Understood - Leave a comment that explains the why, not the how. That's your handshake with the next dev.
- Refactor a Gift - Pick one file. Make it simpler for whoever picks it up next. Then leave a commit that explains why it matters.
- Teach the Tradeoff - Remember a time you chose clarity over cleverness. Share it. Let others see how simplicity helped.
Consider This
Do you want to be remembered for a clever trick?
Or trusted because your code held when it mattered?
You can write to impress.
Or you can write to protect.
Choose trust.
It lasts longer.